Category: food

Turkey Bacon

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

It seemed like it was only last week when Mike and I made some Elvis sandwiches. When I went shopping prior to that round of sandwiches, I bought both regular bacon and turkey bacon as well (the “60% Less Fat” tagline intrigued me).

To get the full Elvis-experience, we used the regular bacon that time. But, of course, that meant that we still had the turkey bacon for more sandwiches some other time. And, over the weekend, we decided to make another batch.

When first opening the turkey bacon package, we both noticed that it had an aroma similar to baloney. This was obviously a baconized product not coming from a natural bacon-producing animal as the package noted that the white stripes contained white meat, while the dark stripes contained dark meat (as opposed to the white stripes being just fat).

So, we were a little creeped out by this bacon masquerade, but we decided to push on. The tacon — as we took to calling it — cooked more like meat strips than actual bacon. Because the white strips were actually meat and not fat, the bacon didn’t shink much in its cooking cycle; and there was hardly any liquid fat in the pan afterwards.

Though the tacon may have been baloney-esque at the beginning, it was surprisingly bacon-like after cooking. It had a pleasant crunch (though not as crispy as bacon) and was more-or-less bacony (not bad for 60%-less-fat!). Of course, after we cooked the bacon, we proceeded to assemble and grill the sandwiches themselves.

In all, we made four sandwiches (two each) and I was curious whether they would stand up to the real-bacon versions. They were good sandwiches — surprisingly tasty — but they didn’t quite match up to those first sandwiches that we made with bacon. It wasn’t that the bacon-flavor was that bad, but it just didn't have the intensity of real bacon.

The tacon turned out better than I expected. But, I probably wouldn’t buy it again. Sure, it had less fat, but an Elvis sandwich is something that I wouldn’t eat very often anyway. And, if I’m going to have a bad-for-me sandwich, it may as well taste great :).

Strawberry Smoothies — with Blue Bell

Ashley Bischoff4 Comments

It’s been a little while since my last update and I’ve been crazy-busy at work until now. This all started last Monday; under the original deadline, I had until the following Monday to complete all 90-some pages in the site. Fortunately, the deadline was extended a bit and they also allowed me to bring on another contractor to help. The site is just about done now, and I’m glad that it’s behind us.

In any case, I wanted to celebrate the progress and — coincidentally — Mike and I had a 6 lb bag of frozen strawberries that was taking up a good deal of room in our freezer. Mike suggested that we could make strawberry smoothies and that sounded pretty good to me.

As it turns out, I had originally bought the strawberries (at Sam’s Club, natch) for use in smoothies. And, my intention was to create some kind of healthy protein-based drink. At the time, I filled the blender about a third-full with frozen strawberries, and added a about a cup of milk, a quarter cup of Splenda, a tablespoon of vanilla, two scoops of protein powder, a quarter-package of tofu, and some ice.

Considering the nature of the ingredients, that smoothie wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t something that I’d find myself craving and I’d say that it fell more on the side of a meal-replacement smoothie than a dessert smoothie. But, considering the project completion at work, I wanted something that was extra-tasty this time.

So, Mike suggested that we use ice cream instead of tofu — not exactly a health-motivated substitution, but a potentially delicious one. We needed to go to Sam’s Club for some groceries anyway, so we headed off and picked up some Blue Bell Vanilla ice cream there.

Being that Mike had made ice cream-based smoothies before, I let him man the blender. First, he added both the strawberries (about two-thirds full) and the ice cream (about an inch up the side of the blender). He blended those, and then added about a quarter-cup of Splenda, about a teaspoon of vanilla (not too much since the ice cream was already vanilla), and half a banana. And, the ice went in right at the end.

I’ll have to admit — this was a very good smoothie, and the recipe wasn’t hard either. It was definitely better-tasting than my original smoothie, but I’m guessing that the tofu / ice cream substitution may have had something to do with that ;). Considering the nature of the recipe, I’m curious whether our creation may have been more of a milkshake than a smoothie (?).

So, we made a couple smoothies on Monday evening and again on Tuesday evening (yeah, they’re that good). And, we’re working our way through that 6 lb bag of frozen strawberries, so all this smoothie-drinking has the side-benefit of freeing up some room in the freezer as well :).

Mike Makes an Elvis

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

After reading about the deliciousness that I encountered, Mike writes about his adventures in creating an Elvis sandwich (yeah, the peanut butter / banana / bacon one), complete with pictures of the event. In particular, he cleverly solved the butter-on-the-cutting-board problem by buttering one side of each slice of bread, and then placing the buttered-sides inwards before adding the peanut butter.

In other news, my former employer called me in today for a freelance job for the week. It’s one of these where the project became delayed (for various reasons) but the deadline stayed the same. So, I’ll be putting in a lot of hours this week and I may not have a chance to write many entries.

The Elvis: Peanut Butter, Bacon, and Banana

Ashley Bischoff11 Comments

I have my TiVo setup to auto-record shows with various keywords, such as “brownies” and “sandwich*” (no kidding). So, it auto-recorded the All About Peanut Butter episode of Sara’s Secrets that aired recently. Among the recipes — and the one that triggered the recording — was The Elvis, which is a peanut butter and banana sandwich.

According to The Presley Family Cookbook, the sandwich eaten by Elvis contained only peanut butter and bananas (which was then pan-fried, of course). However, the chef from Peanut Butter & Co (the guest on Sara’s Secrets) spoke of a variety with bacon as well. And that sounded mighty tasty.

So, during my trip to Super Target on Friday, I picked up some bacon and bananas (we already have peanut butter and Mike has some honey). The bananas were a bit green around the edges, at the time, but they were just perfect by today (small brown speckles here and there). So, Mike and I decided to embark on the Elvis adventure.

We started by frying the bacon and, as a non-bacon-connoisseur, I was surprised by how much the bacon shrank during cooking (some 10-inch pieces shrank to about half that size). The bacon happened to be low sodium, but I’d be kidding myself if I were to say that it made a difference to the overall healthiness of the dish ;).

As Mike kept watch of the bacon, I prepared the bread — which was just a matter of buttering the outside of each slice and spreading peanut butter on the other side of one slice (so, invariably, some slices end up butter-side down on the cutting board). I then sliced a banana length-wise and placed those pieces onto the peanut-buttered sides.

Once the bacon was ready, I placed the bacon on top of the banana (which, of course, was on top of the peanut butter). Each sandwich was about to hold about four slices of bacon. And, I drizzled some honey on top of the bacon to finish it off. After that, we grilled them grilled-cheese style in the pan.

Sure, Velvet Elvises are good, but the bacon is a really nice touch. In particular, its oily saltiness goes very well with the peanut butter. And, the honey gives balance to the sandwich’s sweet-vs-savory nature.

Believe it or not, Mike and I each had two of these artery-busting monsters. And, man, they were fantastic. We both agreed that we’d have to make them more often :). Though the recipe is fairly straightforward, here's also the official version from the show:

The Elvis

Recipe courtesy Peanut Butter & Co.
Show: Sara’s Secrets
Episode: All About Peanut Butter

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Yield: 4 sandwiches

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 8 slices white bread
  • 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
  • 1 large, ripe banana, sliced
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 12 slices bacon, Sauteed until crispy (optional)

Preparation:

Spread the butter on 1 side of each slice of bread. On the other side of half of the slices spread peanut butter. Place banana slices on top of peanut butter. Drizzle honey over bananas. Place 3 bacon slices on top of the banana, then place the remaining buttered bread slices on top, butter-side-out.

Place sandwiches on a preheated grill pan or griddle. Flip them over when they become golden brown and crispy. When the sandwiches are browned on both sides, remove to plates. Slice in half and serve immediately.

Reese’s Inside Out Peanut Butter Cups

Ashley Bischoff16 Comments

I heard about Reese’s Inside-Out Peanut Butter Cups from Supermarket Guru’s New Products page. As you might expect, they’re peanut butter cups, except that the peanut butter bit is on the outside and the chocolate is in the center. But, the review on Supermarket Guru wasn’t so positive:

Here’s what Julie Messerer from Hoquiam, Washington had to say about this product. “The peanut butter is on the outside with a chocolate filling inside. Reese’s is my favorite candy bar (my husband’s, too), and we both agree that it’s too much peanut butter flavoring. We couldn’t taste any chocolate! We’ll stick with the original Reese’s. […] ”

So, on account of the peanut-butteryness, they consider it a “Miss”. But, come on, how could any product have too much peanut butter? Of course, with as much sugar as they probably have, I don’t think I’ll be buying any except perhaps for Halloween festivities (if they last that long). I, for one, welcome our new peanut butter overlords.